Volume  V 


Number  1 


THE 

HARVARD 
THEOLOGICAL    REVIEW 


JANUARY,  1912 


The  End  of  Orthodoxy  and  the  Catholicism  of  Tomorrow 

Romolo  Murri  1 

The   International    Critical    Commentary   on   Genesis, 

Chronicles,  and  the  Psalms Kemper  Fullerton  20 

Mediaeval  German  Mysticism Kuno  Francke  110 

The  Consciousness  of  Sln Edward  L.  Schaub  121 

Harvard  Hymns Warren  Seymour  Archibald  139 


CAMBRIDGE,  MASSACHUSETTS 

PUBLISHED  BY  HARVARD  UNIVERSITY 

1912 


Issued  Quarterly. 


$2.00  a  Year. 


50  cents  a  Copy. 


THE 

HARVARD 
THEOLOGICAL   REVIEW 

Issued  quarterly  by  the  Faculty  of  Divinity  in 
Harvard  University,  Cambridge,  Massachusetts. 


Editorial  Committee 

George  F.  Moore  William  W.  Fenn 

James  H.  Ropes 


The  Harvard  Theological  Review  is  an  undenominational  theo- 
logical quarterly,  established  by  the  aid  of  the  bequest  of  Miss 
Mildred  Everett,  daughter  of  Reverend  Charles  Carroll  Everett, 
D.D.,  Bussey  Professor  of  Theology  in  the  Harvard  Divinity 
School,  1869-1900,  and  Dean  of  the  School,  1878-1900. 

The  Review  aims  to  include  discussions  in  the  various  fields 
of  theological  study  and  also  in  the  history  of  religions,  ethics, 
education,  economics,  and  sociology,  in  their  theological  and 
religious  aspects.  It  is  designed  to  serve  the  needs  not  only  of 
clergymen  and  scholars,  but  of  all  who  are  interested  in  religious 
thought  and  in  the  place  and  function  of  religion  in  modern  life. 

Remittances  and  communications  on  business  matters  should 
be  addressed  to  the  Publication  Agent,  Harvard  University,  Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts, 


PUBLISHED   BY 

HARVARD  UNIVERSITY 

Cambridge 


Entered  as  second-class  mail  matter  January  2,  1908,  at  the  post-office  at  Boston, 
Mass.,  under  the  act  of  Congress  oj  March  S,  1879 


HARVARD    HYMNS  139 


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0Xi  OF  PKltic^ 
'lM0V  11  1932 


HARVARD  HYMNS  ^/CAL  , 


WARREN  SEYMOUR  ARCHIBALD 

Pittsfield,  Massachusetts. 


Most  readers  of  this  article  have  sung,  and  many  have  learned 
by  heart,  a  noble  Christmas  hymn  whose  music  is  now  heard  in 
more  than  one  continent: — 

It  came  upon  the  midnight  clear, 
That  glorious  song  of  old; 

but  few  of  those  who  sing  and  love  it  know  that  it  was  written 
by  a  country  minister  who  graduated  from  the  Harvard  Divinity 
School.  Fewer  still  are  aware  that  a  series  of  men  have  proceeded 
from  this  department  of  Harvard  University  who,  for  now  almost 
a  hundred  years,  have  maintained  this  succession  in  sacred 
song.  What  may  properly  be  called  a  school  of  religious  poetry 
constitutes  a  worthy  part  of  the  contribution  to  literary  culture 
which  Harvard  has  made  and  which  through  many  generations 
formed  the  peculiar  and  greatest  distinction  of  New  England. 

In  this  matter  Harvard  may  claim  to  have  carried  on  the 
tradition  of  the  English  universities.  One  of  the  circumstances 
which  lend  dignity  and  honor  to  Oxford  and  Cambridge  has  been 
the  presence  there  from  time  to  time  of  men  who  are  truly  called 
religious  poets,  because  they  have  had  a  genius  for  expressing  in 
lyric  and  epic  verse  that  interior  mystery  which  gives  our  humanity 
"her  kindred  with  the  stars."  Such  men  at  the  English  univer- 
sities occupy  no  inconspicuous  place  in  the  records  of  English  liter- 
ature. No  description  of  the  seventeenth  century,  for  example, 
could  be  complete  without  mention  of  Herbert,  Crashaw,  and 
Vaughan.  Nor,  indeed,  could  the  temper  of  that  intensely  re- 
ligious period  in  the  first  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  be  under- 
stood without  this  lasting  expression  of  that  devout  piety,  pas- 


140  HARVARD  THEOLOGICAL  REVIEW 

sionate  love,  and  high  thought,  which  in  various  ways  made  the 
period  so  tumultuous.  In  Herbert  we  see  the  moral  earnestness 
and  sincere  piety  which  have  always  characterized  a  large  element 
in  the  English-speaking  race.  In  Crashaw  can  be  studied  the 
ecstatic  and  mystical  spirit  of  Roman  Catholicism  which  found  in 
his  time  a  visible  expression  in  the  religious  brotherhood  gathered 
about  Nicholas  Ferrar  at  Little  Gidding, — a  spirit  which  has 
received  renewed  and  beautiful  utterance  in  the  religious  romance 
of  John  Inglesant.  In  Vaughan,  the  poet  in  the  Welsh  valley 
of  Usk,  the  legendary  home  of  Arthur,  appears  that  Celtic  strain 
which  in  our  English  race  has  been  a  highway  for  visions  and  the 
visitation  of  dreams.  And  the  name  of  Milton,  who  was  the 
contemporary  of  these  more  quiet  souls,  needs  only  to  be  men- 
tioned in  order  to  recall  his  relation  to  the  religious  strain  in  our 
inheritance.  These  traits  and  these  traditions  have  had  a  certain 
parallel  here  at  Harvard;  for  if  no  harvest  of  song  was  among 
the  first-fruits  of  New  England, — no  one  will  be  so  patriotic  as  to 
include  Michael  Wiggles  worth's  Day  of  Doom  among  religious 
lyrics, — nevertheless  the  seed  was  planted  which  in  good  time 
brought  forth,  if  not  an  hundred  fold,  at  least  a  reasonable  thirty 
or  forty. 

The  list  of  these  Harvard  poets  includes  O.  B.  Frothingham, 
Emerson,  H.  H.  Furness,  Henry  Ware,  Jr.,  E.  H.  Sears,  James 
Freeman  Clarke,  Samuel  Longfellow,  Samuel  Johnson,  J.  W. 
Chadwick,  F.  L.  Hosmer,  William  C.  Gannett,  and  others, — men 
whose  names  are  many  of  them  less  familiar  than  are  their  hymns, 
but  who  possessed  a  certain  unity  and  fellowship  of  deep  spiritual 
feeling  which  makes  it  right  to  call  them  a  school  of  writers  of 
hymns.  It  is  a  striking  fact  that  verses  which  have  since  travelled 
''over  the  hills  and  far  away"  among  books  and  people  were 
written  by  men  while  they  were  still  students  in  the  Divinity 
School,  and  frequently  for  the  old  Divinity  Commencement, 
called  Visitation  Day,  at  which,  as  in  other  institutions,  a  hymn 
written  by  a  student  was  a  prominent  part.  One  of  the  best  of 
these  was  written  by  Edward  Rowland  Sill,  whom  most  of  us 
know  as  the  Californian  poet,  not  as  a  student  of  divinity 
at  Harvard.  His  hymn  is  a  lyric  invocation  for  the  gifts  of  the 
spirit. 


HARVARD  HYMNS  141 

Send  down  thy  truth,  O  God! 

Too  long  the  shadows  frown, 
Too  long  the  darkened  way  we've  trod, 

Thy  truth,  O  Lord,  send  down ! 

Send  down  thy  spirit  free, 

Till  wilderness  and  town 
One  temple  for  thy  worship  be, 

Thy  spirit,  O,  send  down! 

Send  down  thy  love,  thy  life, 

Our  lesser  lives  to  crown, 
And  cleanse  them  of  their  hate  and  strife, 

Thy  living  love  send  down ! 

Send  down  thy  peace,  O  Lord ! 

Earth's  bitter  voices  drown 
In  one  deep  ocean  of  accord, 

Thy  peace,  O  God,  send  down ! 


II 

A  particular  description  of  all  these  men  would  be  tedious.  So 
let  us  select  some  typical  ones,  whose  work  possesses  special  in- 
terest. We  may  divide  the  writers  of  the  school  into  three  groups. 
The  first  dates  from  about  1820,  and  includes  Henry  Ware,  Jr., 
Frederic  H.  Hedge,  Andrews  Norton,  Stephen  G.  Bulfinch,  James 
Freeman  Clarke,  Theodore  Parker,  Edmund  H.  Sears,  Horace  H. 
Furness,  and  C.  A.  Bartol.  All  these  men  attained  distinction. 
Ware,  Hedge,  and  Norton  occupied  professorships  at  Harvard. 
Bartol  was  for  fifty-two  years  minister  of  the  old  West  Church  in 
Boston.  Clarke  was  for  almost  half  a  century  minister  of  the 
.Church  of  the  Disciples  in  Boston.  Theodore  Parker  speaks  for 
himself.  Sears  is  well  known  not  only  as  a  hymn  writer  but  as 
the  author  of  a  book  of  rare  spiritual  insight,  The  Fourth 
Gospel  the  Heart  of  Christ.  Furness  was  an  active  pastor  in 
Philadelphia  for  fifty  years,  and  as  minister  active  and  emeritus 
served  his  church  for  the  amazingly  long  term  of  seventy-one 
years. 

Perhaps  the  best-known  hymns  in  this  group  were  written  by 
Clarke,  Sears,  Furness,  and  Parker.     Clarke  wrote  a  number  of 


142  HARVARD  THEOLOGICAL  REVIEW 

hymns,  but  that  which  has  travelled  farthest  is  the  one  written 
in  1856:— 

Father,  to  us  thy  children,  humbly  kneeling, 

Conscious  of  weakness,  ignorance,  sin,  and  shame, 

Give  such  a  force  of  holy  thought  and  feeling 
That  we  may  live  to  glorify  thy  name, 

That  we  may  conquer  base  desire  and  passion, 
That  we  may  rise  from  selfish  thought  and  will, 

O'ercome  the  world's  allurement,  threat,  and  fashion, 
Walk  humbly,  gently,  leaning  on  thee  still. 

Let  all  thy  goodness  by  our  minds  be  seen, 

Let  all  thy  mercy  on  our  souls  be  sealed. 
Lord,  if  thou  wilt,  thy  power  can  make  us  clean; 

O,  speak  the  word,  thy  servants  shall  be  healed. 

Among  these  men,  the  name  of  Sears  is  perhaps  the  least  known, 
and  yet,  of  all  the  hymns,  his  are  probably  the  most  famous.  He 
preferred  the  life  of  a  country  parson  in  Wayland,  Lancaster,  and 
Weston,  Massachusetts,  because  this  gave  him  more  leisure  for 
study  and  writing.  His  two  Christmas  Irvmns  are  sung  now  in  all 
churches  in  America  and  Great  Britain.  Almost  every  one  knows 
the  Christmas  song: — 

It  came  upon  the  midnight  clear, 

That  glorious  song  of  old, 
From  angels  bending  near  the  earth 

To  touch  their  harps  of  gold : 
"Peace  on  the  earth,  good-will  to  men, 

From  heaven's  all-gracious  King." 
The  world  in  solemn  stillness  lay 

To  hear  the  angels  sing. 

Still  through  the  cloven  skies  they  come, 

With  peaceful  wings  unfurled, 
And  still  their  heavenly  music  floats 

O'er  all  the  weary  world; 
Above  its  sad  and  lowly  plains 

They  bend  on  hovering  wing, 
And  ever  o'er  its  Babel  sounds 

The  blessed  angels  sing. 


HARVARD  HYMNS  143 

And  ye,  beneath  life's  crushing  load 

Whose  forms  are  bending  low, 
Who  toil  along  the  climbing  way, 

With  painful  steps  and  slow, — 
Look  now,  for  glad  and  golden  hours 

Come  swiftly  on  the  wing : 
O,  rest  beside  the  weary  road, 

And  hear  the  angels  sing ! 

For  lo!  the  days  are  hastening  on 

By  prophet  bards  foretold, 
When  with  the  ever-circling  years 

Comes  round  the  age  of  gold, 
When  Peace  shall  over  all  the  earth 

Its  ancient  splendors  fling, 
And  the  whole  world  give  back  the  song 

Which  now  the  angels  sing. 

Another  hymn  of  his  is  almost  as  well  known,  and  appears 
in  most  collections  as  a  companion  of  the  first  one: — 

Calm  on  the  listening  ear  of  night 
Come  heaven's  melodious  strains. 

Furness  wrote  an  unusually  large  number  of  religious  lyrics. 
They  have  a  simplicity  of  phrase  and  clearness  of  thought  which 
remind  one  of  many  of  the  hymns  written  by  Keble  and  Faber. 
Of  them  I  venture  to  think  that  his  vesper  hymn  will  compel  the 
hearts  of  the  largest  congregation.  I  think  I  have  read  somewhere 
that  Emerson  called  it  the  finest  hymn  in  the  world.  At  any 
rate  it  holds  a  high  place. 

Slowly,  by  thy  hand  unfurled, 
Down  around  the  weary  world 
Falls  the  darkness.     O,  how  still 
Is  the  working  of  thy  will ! 

Mighty  Maker,  ever  nigh, 
Work  in  me  as  silently, 
Veil  the  day 's  distracting  sights, 
Show  me  heaven's  eternal  lights; 

Living  worlds  to  view  be  brought 
In  the  boundless  realms  of  thought, 
High  and  infinite  desires, 
Flaming  like  those  upper  fires; 


144  HARVARD  THEOLOGICAL  REVIEW 

Holy  truth,  eternal  right, 
Let  them  break  upon  my  sight, 
Let  them  shine,  serene  and  still, 
And  with  light  my  being  fill. 

Attention  has  frequently  been  called  to  men  who  have  reached 
and  held  a  high  distinction  by  virtue  of  one  book  or  of  one  poem. 
Gray,  for  example,  is  practically  known  only  through  his  "Elegy 
in  a  Country  Churchyard."  The  same  remark  can  be  made  of 
Theodore  Parker  as  a  religious  poet.  He  is  known  only,  and  yet 
very  wridely  and  justly,  through  his  hymn  beginning, — 

O  thou  great  Friend  to  all  the  sons  of  men. 

It  is  interesting  that  this  originally  appeared  as  a  sonnet,  of 
which  the  hymn  gives  the  first  three  quatrains.  As  a  hymn,  it 
was  first  published  by  Longfellow  and  Johnson  in  their  Booh  of 
Hymns. 

Ill 

The  second  group  dates  from  the  years  following  1840,  and  in- 
cludes Samuel  Longfellow,  Samuel  Johnson,  T.  W.  Higginson, 
O.  B.  Frothingham,  and  Jones  Very.  These  were  an  interesting 
group  of  men,  both  because  of  their  high  work  in  religious  poe- 
try and  because  of  their  connection  with  Transcendentalism. 
Samuel  Longfellow  and  Samuel  Johnson  may  be  spoken  of  to- 
gether, because  they  were  friends  who  found  a  happy  part- 
nership in  writing  and  thinking.  As  seniors  in  the  Divinity 
School,  they  compiled  an  anthology  of  religious  poems  of  unusual 
value.  "They  read,  criticised,  and  compared  literally  thousands 
of  hymns,  ransacking  the  collections  of  all  denominations,  and 
the  poetry  of  other  languages  besides  our  own;  gleaning  even  in 
the  newspapers,  and  utilizing  portions  of  poems  by  skilful  adapta- 
tion. ...  It  is  probable  that  Mrs.  Adams's  *  Nearer,  my  God,  to 
thee,'  here  first  appeared,  at  least  in  an  American  collection. 
Beautiful  hymns  from  Sears,  Furness,  Clarke,  H.  B.  Stow^e,  Emer- 
son, H.  W.  Longfellow,  Trench,  Very,  Lowell,  and  others  still 
fresh,  if  not  wholly  new,  enriched  the  volume.  They  diligently 
gathered  material,  also,  from  private  sources,  and  did  not  fail  in 


HARVARD  HYMNS  145 

the  courage  it  then  required  to  invite  contributions  from  Theodore 
Parker.  A  number  of  the  hymns  were  original,  written  by  the 
compilers  themselves  or  by  their  friends,  partly  with  a  view  to  the 
particular  aims  of  the  new  collection.  Most,  if  not  all  of  these, 
they  published  as  anonymous,  and  not  all  have  ever  been  credited 
to  their  authors;  but  among  them  were  some  of  the  finest,  which 
have  remained  among  the  treasures  of  our  hymnology."1 

One  hymn  in  this  collection  deserves  particular  mention.  They 
found  it  in  an  xVmerican  newspaper.  It  was  anonymous,  but 
they  felt  at  once  its  lofty  mood  and  exquisite  phrasing.  They 
recognized  its  nobility,  and  placed  it  in  their  book.  It  was  New- 
man's "Lead,  kindly  Light."  That  discovery  speaks  well  for 
the  editors'  range  and  insight.  It  must  be  noted,  however,  in  all 
honesty,  that  they  made  several  changes  in  the  phrasing  of  the 
hymn,  which  were  decidedly  no  improvement,  and  which  they 
had  the  good  judgment  to  remove  in  a  later  edition.  This  ten- 
dency to  make  alterations  in  the  poems,  unfortunately  present  in 
the  Book  of  Hymns,  was  even  more  conspicuous  in  the  revised 
edition  which  appeared  in  1864  under  a  new  title,  Hymns  of 
the  Spirit. 

T.  W.  Higginson,  one  of  the  contributors  to  the  Book  of  Hymns, 
writes,  "My  sister,  an  intimate  friend  of  Mr.  Longfellow,  satir- 
ized this  propensity  in  one  of  the  nonsense  stanzas  then  so  prev- 
alent. It  must  be  premised  that  as  both  of  the  editors  were 
named  Samuel,  their  book  was  often  characterized  the  'Sam- 
Book/ 

*  There  were  two  Sams  of  America 
Who  belonged  to  the  profession  called  "clerica." 
They  hunted  up  hymns 
And  cut  off  their  limbs, 
These  truculent  Sams  of  America.' 

Longfellow  entered  heartily  into  this  joke,  and  illustrated  the 
verse  with  a  pen-and-ink  sketch,  representing  two  young  men 
with  large  shears  cutting  up  rolls  of  paper.  The  likeness  of  John- 
son, who  was  very  handsome,  with  the  air  of  a  high-caste  Parsee 
or  Assyrian,  was  unmistakable."2 

1  Samuel  Longfellow,  by  Joseph  May,  p.  50.  2  Ibid.,  p.  54. 


146  HARVARD  THEOLOGICAL  REVIEW 

The  chief  interest  of  these  two,  and  that  of  all  this  group,  lies 
for  us  in  their  connection  with  Transcendentalism;  for  their 
hymns  are  spiritual  ballads  in  that  border-land  of  idealism.  Most 
of  these  men  lived  in  the  glory  of  that  movement,  for  in  1843,  the 
year  that  Longfellow  and  Johnson  entered  the  Divinity  School, 
Emerson  printed  Nature.  The  work  of  these  two  men  is  very 
likely  the  best  representative  of  this  group  and  period.  It  is 
hardly  too  much  to  say  that  in  their  religious  poetry  Tran- 
scendentalism is  seen  at  its  best,  because  in  these  lyrics  was  ut- 
tered the  finer  spiritual  character  of  that  movement  without 
exaggeration  and  fantastic  obscurity.  Their  poetry  emphasized 
and  expressed  the  spirit  in  man  answering  to  the  spirit  in  God, 
the  divine  in  humanity  calling  to  the  divine  in  the  Infinite  Father. 
All  their  poems  have  a  common  spirit  and  a  classic  beauty,  a  pas- 
sion for  simplicity  and  the  universal.  We  shall  search  far  before 
we  find  a  nobler  utterance  of  that  truth  that  "God  is  through  all 
and  in  you  all"  than  is  given  in  this  poem  by  Samuel  Long- 
fellow : — 

God  of  the  earth,  the  sky,  the  sea, 

Maker  of  all  above,  below, 
Creation  lives  and  moves  in  thee; 

Thy  present  life  through  all  doth  flow. 

Thy  love  is  in  the  sunshine's  glow, 

Thy  life  is  in  the  quickening  air; 
When  lightnings  flash  and  storm-winds  blow, 

There  is  thy  power,  thy  law  is  there. 

We  feel  thy  calm  at  evening's  hour, 

Thy  grandeur  in  the  march  of  night, 
And  when  the  morning  breaks  in  power, 

We  hear  thy  word,  "Let  there  be  light." 

But  higher  far,  and  far  more  clear, 

Thee  in  man's  spirit  we  behold, 
Thine  image  and  thyself  are  there, — 

The  indwelling  God,  proclaimed  of  old. 

A  fine  enthusiasm,  a  militant  faith,  chants  in  the  lines  on  the 
Church  which  both  men  wrote.     It  is  very  striking  to  find  two 


HARVARD  HYMNS  147 

poems  written  by  two  friends  on  the  same  theme,  in  the  same 
period,  both  attaining  distinction  and  yet  remaining  quite  dis- 
similar. The  hymn  by  Samuel  Johnson  on  the  City  of  God  is 
as  truly  positive  as  if  it  had  come  from  the  mediaeval  "ages  of 
faith"  :— 

City  of  God,  how  broad  and  far 

Outspread  thy  walls  sublime! 
The  true  thy  chartered  freemen  are, 

Of  every  age  and  clime. 

One  holy  Church,  one  army  strong, 

One  steadfast  high  intent, 
One  working  band,  one  harvest-song, 

One  King  omnipotent! 

How  purely  hath  thy  speech  come  down 

From  man's  primeval  youth! 
How  grandly  hath  thine  empire  grown 

Of  freedom,  love,  and  truth! 

How  gleam  thy  watch-fires  through  the  night 

With  never  fainting  ray! 
How  rise  thy  towers,  serene  and  bright, 

To  meet  the  dawning  day! 

In  vain  the  surge's  angry  shock, 

In  vain  the  drifting  sands; 
Unharmed  upon  the  eternal  rock, 

The  eternal  city  stands. 

And  few  religious  poets  in  Oxford  or  in  Cambridge  have  with  any 
more  truth,  simplicity,  and  spiritual  ardor  given  utterance  to 
their  century's  vision  of  the  Church  than  has  Samuel  Longfellow 
in  the  cadence  of  these  lines : — 

One  holy  Church  of  God  appears 

Through  every  age  and  race, 
Unwasted  by  the  lapse  of  years, 

Unchanged  by  changing  place. 

From  oldest  time,  on  farthest  shores, 

Beneath  the  pine  or  palm, 
One  unseen  presence  she  adores, 

With  silence  or  with  psalm. 


148  HARVARD  THEOLOGICAL  REVIEW 

Her  priests  are  all  God's  faithful  sons, 
To  serve  the  world  raised  up; 

The  pure  in  heart,  her  baptized  ones; 
Love,  her  communion-cup. 

The  truth  is  her  prophetic  gift, 
The  soul  her  sacred  page; 

And  feet  on  mercy's  errands  swift 
Do  make  her  pilgrimage. 

O  living  Church,  thine  errand  speed, 
Fulfil  thy  task  sublime, 

With  bread  of  life  earth's  hunger  feed, 
Redeem  the  evil  time! 


IV 

The  third  group  dates  from  about  1860  and  the  following  years, 
and  includes  E.  R.  Sill,  F.  L.  Hosmer,  W.  C.  Gannett,  J.  W.  Chad- 
wick,  and  S.  C.  Beach.  They  are  connected  by  inheritance  with 
the  Transcendentalists,  and  they  maintain  the  lyric  strain  wThich 
characterized  Samuel  Longfellow  and  his  friends.  Sill  is  known 
to  most  of  us  as  a  poet  who  belongs  to  the  same  circle  of  thought 
as  Emerson,  Arnold,  Tennyson, — a  man  whose  message  is  always 
ethical,  touched  with  gracious  dignity  and  wistful  visions.  Doubt- 
less few  think  of  him  as  a  religious  poet  or  hymn  writer.  But 
like  Theodore  Parker  he  has  written  one  hymn  wrhich  is  widely 
known  and  conspicuous  for  its  spirit  of  devotion: — 

Send  down  thy  truth,  O  God. 

Another  member  of  this  group,  John  White  Chad  wick,  has  the 
distinction  of  having  written  a  hymn  for  the  old  Visitation  Day 
which,  like  Sill's,  promises  to  endure.  One  stanza  will  indicate 
its  quality: — 

Eternal  Ruler  of  the  ceaseless  round 
Of  circling  planets  singing  on  their  way, 

Guide  of  the  nations  from  the  night  profound 
Into  the  glory  of  the  perfect  day, 

Rule  in  our  hearts,  that  we  may  ever  be 

Guided,  and  strengthened,  and  upheld  by  thee. 

This  exalted  invocation  is  a  modern  psalm  in  its  ease,  clearness, 
and  emotion. 


HARVARD  HYMNS  149 

Of  this  group,  the  two  men  who  seem  most  prominent,  and  who 
continue  the  work  of  Longfellow  and  Johnson,  are  William  C. 
Gannett  and  Frederick  L.  Hosmer.  Both  have  the  lyric  quality, 
the  ability  to  express  religious  feeling  in  simple  and  unencum- 
bered lines.  Both  are  in  a  large  measure  unfettered  by  the  weight 
of  commonplace,  unburdened  by  heavily  gilded  words  or  phrases 
of  an  ancient  symbolism.  It  is  wholly  proper,  of  course,  to  em- 
ploy the  older  metaphors  and  epithets,  but  in  that  case,  if  the 
hymn  is  to  possess  a  real  and  honest  distinction,  the  language 
must  be  confessedly  archaic.  It  is  legitimate,  and  in  many  cases 
profitable,  to  be  pre-raphaelite,  but  then  the  work  must  be  signed 
"P.  R.  B."  These  poets  are  not  pre-raphaelite.  They  are  men 
of  their  own  time.  And  they  are  also,  as  every  poet  must  be, 
men  who  write  in  the  light  of  the  Eternal.  The  feeling  which 
they  express  is  of  the  eternal  Spirit  in  man,  which  is  from  ever- 
lasting to  everlasting;  the  utterance  is  distinctly  colored  by  the 
thought  of  their  own  time. 

Gannett's  poetry  has  a  singular  felicity,  a  sharp,  clear,  New 
England  tone  and  atmosphere.  His  words  are  as  distinct  as 
green  trees  in  a  snow-covered  field;  they  have  the  clearness  and 
sharpness  which  in  a  New  England  winter  on  a  bright  sunny 
day  the  hills,  the  boundary  lines,  the  solitary  trees  outlined 
against  the  sky  impressively  possess.  For  example,  these  lines, 
which  have  for  their  text  the  familiar  words  "Consider  the  lilies, 
how  they  grow,"  show  both  this  clearness  of  thought  and  felicity 
in  expression: — 

He  hides  within  the  lily 

A  strong  and  tender  care, 
That  wins  the  earth-born  atoms 

To  glory  of  the  air; 
He  weaves  the  shining  garments 

Unceasingly  and  still, 
Along  the  quiet  waters, 

In  niches  of  the  hill. 

We  linger  at  the  vigil 

With  him  who  bent  the  knee 
To  watch  the  old-time  lilies 

In  distant  Galilee; 


150  HARVARD  THEOLOGICAL  REVIEW 

And  still  the  worship  deepens, 
And  quickens  into  new, 

As  brightening  down  the  ages 
God's  secret  thrilleth  through. 

O  Toiler  of  the  lily, 

Thy  touch  is  in  the  Man ! 
No  leaf  that  dawns  to  petal 

But  hints  the  angel-plan. 
The  flower  horizons  open! 

The  blossom  vaster  shows ! 
We  hear  the  wide  worlds  echo, — 

See  how  the  lily  grows ! 

Shy  yearnings  of  the  savage, 

Unfolding  thought  by  thought, 
To  holy  lives  are  lifted, 

To  visions  fair  are  wrought; 
The  races  rise  and  cluster, 

And  evils  fade  and  fall, 
Till  chaos  blooms  to  beauty, 

Thy  purpose  crowning  all ! 


Hosmer's  poetry  reminds  one  very  much  of  Samuel  Longfellow. 
It  has  the  same  lucidity,  the  same  skilful  employment  of  common 
words  in  such  a  way  that  they  assume  noble  and  dignified  phrasing. 
Words  are  very  much  like  people.  The  Great  Master  of  men 
could  out  of  fishermen  and  publicans  make  the  noble  army  of 
martyrs.  And  a  master  of  words,  like  Lincoln,  can  out  of  very 
common  words  construct  the  immemorial  prayer  of  a  nation. 
This  is  difficult.  It  is  seldom  achieved,  yet  the  achievement  is 
the  goal  of  all  who  strive  to  utter  the  thought  of  God  in  the  words 
of  man.  Whenever  it  is  done,  whether  in  large  or  small  degree, 
we  see  the  best  work.  Something  of  this  achievement  is  found 
in  Hosmer's  religious  poetry.  He  can  express  exalted  thought  in 
single  and  intelligible  words,  the  clearness  of  which  does  not 
detract  from  their  felicity.  There  is  no  thought  more  exalted  than 
that  of  the  mystery  of  God,  and  few  expressions  of  that  mystery 
have  more  sweetness  and  light  than  these  lines: — 


HARVARD  HYMNS  151 

O  thou,  in  all  thy  might  so  far, 

In  all  thy  love  so  near, 
Beyond  the  range  of  sun  and  star, 

And  yet  beside  us  here, — 

What  heart  can  comprehend  thy  name, 

Or,  searching,  find  thee  out, 
Who  art  within,  a  quickening  flame, 

A  presence  round  about? 

Yet,  though  I  know  thee  but  in  part, 

I  ask  not,  Lord,  for  more: 
Enough  for  me  to  know  thou  art, 

To  love  thee  and  adore. 

O,  sweeter  than  aught  else  besides, 

The  tender  mystery 
That  like  a  veil  of  shadow  hides 

The  light  I  may  not  see! 

And  dearer  than  all  things  I  know 

Is  childlike  faith  to  me, 
That  makes  the  darkest  way  I  go 

An  open  path  to  thee. 


The  men  whom  we  have  considered  in  these  three  groups  con- 
stitute, as  I  have  said,  a  school  in  religious  poetry.  For  almost 
one  hundred  years  they  have  expressed  in  lyric  verse,  much  of  it 
enduring,  much  of  it  beautiful,  one  phase  of  the  choice  religious 
life  of  New  England.  This  is  significant,  if  one  said  no  more; 
but  we  cannot  help  remembering  that  New  England,  with  her 
theology  and  her  conscience,  her  religion  and  her  ancient  parishes, 
with  her  godly  men  and  women  strengthened  by  the  austerity 
of  that  theology,  ennobled  by  the  vigor  of  that  conscience,  and 
given  a  gracious  sweetness  and  dignity  by  that  spiritual  religion, — 
this  New  England  has  been  no  inconsiderable  part  of  America. 
At  her  best  she  and  her  ancient  college  at  Cambridge  have  stood 
for  idealism.  Some  have  asked  what  centre  is  there  at  Harvard 
around  which  her  activities  may  gather?     The  answer  is,  this 


152  HARVARD  THEOLOGICAL  REVIEW 

idealism.  The  ideal  for  which  scholars  in  old  Cambridge  fled  to 
a  wilderness,  for  which  the  college  was  founded,  which  has  nurt- 
ured and  bred  her  poets,  her  scholars,  her  divines,  her  men  of 
affairs  and  of  simplicity  of  heart  and  life.  The  college  has  en- 
dured only  because  it  has  by  faith  seen  the  invisible.  And  again 
some  will  say,  "New  England  theology  has  collapsed;  what 
standard  is  there  to  which  New  England  Puritanism  can  repair?" 
And  again  the  answer  is,  idealism.  That  was  the  life  of  the  New 
England  theology.  It  has  never  passed  away.  It  is  indestruc- 
tible. It  can  build  once  more  a  noble  mansion  for  the  mind; 
can  rear  once  more  its  systems  of  divinity,  its  intellectual  homes. 
This  faith  is  established  in  the  knowledge  that  the  soil  where 
fine  religious  poetry  grows  is  good  soil.  If  the  soil  has  hitherto 
brought  forth  these  flowers,  it  promises  a  yet  richer  harvest  in 
song  and  thought. 

Of  this  idealism,  this  faith,  these  poets  of  religion  have  given 
noble  and  true  expression.  They  have  kept  alive  from  year  to 
year  the  sacred  fire  which  burns  below  all  systems  of  thought 
and  bodies  of  divinity,  which  glows  in  the  heart  of  man  and 
flames  in  the  centre  of  the  universe.  They  have  found  the  com- 
mon faith  below  the  sectarian  superstructure,  the  deep  founda- 
tions on  which  every  spiritual  edifice  is  reared.  These  poems 
have  survived  the  controversies  and  divisions,  and  they  have 
entered  into  the  rest  even  of  hymn  books  foreign  to  their  authors' 
creed. 

The  most  significant  remark,  therefore,  which  can  be  made 
about  this  school  of  poetry  is  this:  these  men  have  expressed 
that  spirit  of  idealism  which  is  after  all  the  very  essence  of  our 
New  England  theology,  the  fibre  of  New  England  character,  the 
common  faith  of  the  ancestral  order.  They  have  given  utter- 
ance to  this  idealism  in  lyric  verse,  set  to  the  music  of  old  tunes, 
— the  truest  and  most  permanent  tabernacle  for  a  spirit  so  fragile 
and  so  indestructible. 


THE    AUTHORS    OF    ARTICLES    IN    THIS 

NUMBER    OF    THE    HARVARD 

THEOLOGICAL  REVIEW 


Don  ROMOLO  MURRI  is  the  well-known  leader  of  Italian 
"  Modernist "  thought.  He  was  the  organizer  of  the 
Italian  "  Christian  Democracy/ '  and  since  1909  has 
been  a  member  of  the  national  Chamber  of  Deputies. 

Professor  KEMPER  FULLERTON  is  Professor  of  the 
Old  Testament  Language  and  Literature  in  Oberlin 
Theological  Seminary,  Oberlin,  Ohio. 

Professor  KUNO  FRANCKE,  LL.D.,  is  Professor  of  the 
History  of  German  Culture  in  Harvard  University. 

Professor  EDWARD  LEROY  SCHAUB  is  Assistant 
Professor  of  Philosophy  in  Queen's  University,  Kings- 
ton, Ontario. 

Rev.  WARREN  S.  ARCHIBALD  is  pastor  of  the  Pilgrim 
Memorial  Church  (Congregational),  Pittsfield,  Mas- 
sachusetts. 


THE 

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VOLUME  LXIX.    W2 


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and  Edwards  A.  Park,  with  the  special  cooperation  of  Dr.  Robinson 
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1864  the  Christian  Review  (the  organ  of  the  Baptists)  and  in  1871  the 
Theological  Eclectic  were  merged  with  it.  Professor  Edwards  A.  Park 
continued  as  its  principal  editor  until  the  close  of  its  fortieth  volume 
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